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SOUTH
AUSTRALIA:
STATE IN FOCUS
FOREWORD STATEMENT FROM SOUTH AUSTRALIA’S
CHIEF ENTREPRENEUR
There are exciting changes taking place in South Australia—changes
that are transforming our economic landscape and providing new South Australia is one of the world’s best places to live.
opportunities for businesses to grow. We also want to make it one of the world’s best places to start and
grow a business.
We are making South Australia the leading state for business
startups. To support this goal, we are assisting entrepreneurs to To do this, we need more people thinking and aspiring to be
seize opportunities and turn ideas into businesses. To kickstart ‘entrepreneurs’ because in many ways, entrepreneurs are heroes in
their journey, we are investing over $400m to build an innovation the way they go about solving problems, devising creative solutions
and cultural precinct at Lot Fourteen – a creative and innovation and creating jobs and wealth for society.
neighbourhood spread over seven hectares in the Adelaide CBD.
Governments at all levels are working to create the right
A new innovation, incubator, startup and growth hub will provide environment for businesses to thrive, and South Australia is a
aspiring entrepreneurs with an opportunity to collaborate with great example with the investment in business infrastructure and
startup founders, researchers, industry, business mentors, investors new support frameworks that welcomes all individuals wanting to
and other support services to bring their ideas to market. turn their ideas into businesses.
Lot Fourteen is already home to a cluster of companies from fast We are now calling on the community to get behind these future
growing industries and will continue to expand in areas such as heroes. Mistakes will be made along the way and some will fail,
defence and space technologies, cyber security, machine learning, like many of today’s successful entrepreneurs once did.
robotics and creative industries, offering a supportive environment
for start-ups and entrepreneurs to thrive. We want young people, parents, mature-aged workers and
established business people to help and encourage each other
Leading the State’s new vision is South Australia’s first Chief on this journey as the lesson learnt along the way is what creates
Entrepreneur, co-founder and chairman of Nova Group, Jim our future.
Whalley. Jim is supported by the Entrepreneurship Advisory Board
consisting of several prominent business leaders who are already My fellow Entrepreneurship Advisory Board members and I seek
working hard to support the next generation of innovators and to be a voice for the entrepreneurial community and a conduit to
entrepreneurs. policy makers so that collectively, we work as a team to create an
even better South Australia for all.
We are providing entrepreneurs with every opportunity to excel
right here in South Australia— a state already recognised for Jim Whalley
innovation, universities and world-class research institutes, food South Australia’s Chief Entrepreneur
and wine and cultural festivals.
Come and join this new and vibrant chapter we are creating in
South Australia.
Hon Steven Marshall Minister for Industry and Skills
Premier of South Australia
The South Australian Government commissioned this section of Crossroads.
Hon David Pisoni Research and authorship was conducted independently by StartupAUS.
LOT FOURTEEN
South Australia has embarked on an ambitious project Lot Fourteen’s core purpose is nurturing talent and driving
to build one of the largest innovation districts in the businesses and jobs in some of the world’s fastest growing
Southern Hemisphere. industries like artificial intelligence, cyber security, smart sensor
networks, robotics, big data, block chain, defence and space
Lot Fourteen is being developed on behalf of the State Government technologies, plus media and creative industries.
of South Australia by Renewal SA as a creation and innovation
neighbourhood on the site of the former Royal Adelaide Hospital. The neighbourhood covers seven hectares on the corner
of North Terrace and Frome Road, offering approximately
The seven-hectare neighbourhood is bringing together in one 23,500m 2 of workspaces across a range of State Heritage and
place members of the entrepreneurial ecosystem including other repurposed buildings. This includes 650 workspaces
startups, mentors, corporations, researchers and investors dedicated to startups within the Innovation, Incubator,
with creatives to share spaces, experiences and knowledge. Startup & Growth Hub.
STARTUP PROFILE
Founded in Adelaide in December 2011 by Jindou Lee and Andrew
McKenzie Ross, HappyCo offers a SaaS platform for real estate
management. As a successful real estate investor, Lee came up
Myriota is named after the combination of words myriad and with the idea based on his experience with the difficulties of paper
iota, meaning many small things. Its founder, Dr Alex Grant, processes in the industry. Today, 1.5m properties are managed
describes the vision as massive scale connectivity to millions using HappyCo’s products.
of small devices.
In 2012 HappyCo was accepted into the 500 Startups accelerator
The value proposition of Myriota is to improve industry via program and moved to Silicon Valley, although they kept an office in
low-cost data connectivity, which encompasses a variety Adelaide. In 2016, HappyCo raised $9.9m in funding, mostly from
of separate innovations. First are the sensors, which are so American and European investors. This year they raised $14m in
energy efficient that they are able to operate on a pair of a round led by Australian investors, coinciding with the company’s
commercial AA batteries for up to five years with no need for goal of bringing their R&D operations back to Adelaide.
regular maintenance or replacement. Then there’s the satellite
network, providing connectivity and cloud-based analysis in
particularly remote areas, without the need for mobile towers
or local internet connectivity.
And that’s just the hardware - the software embedded in the
sensors is also unique. The sensors can be customised based
on client needs from the current level of a water tank to the Started in December 2013 by Roland Peddie and Jon Soong, Makers
acoustic signal of a generator’s wind turbine. They have basic Empire provides 3D printing software for elementary, primary and
logic functions and come with a software development kit middle schools. Peddie originally conceived the software while
(SDK) for client-based development, or Myriota can help working as a game designer and noticing the impressive designs
develop the functionality in-house. children could create in games that provided the opportunity.
Teaming up with another friend from the University of Adelaide,
And since handling millions of inbound packets of information Lap Leung, they pitched to investor Anthony Chhoy, who was so
is not a trivial concern, the protocols for communicating with impressed with their product that he joined the company as a
the satellite network are also patented, taking advantage of fourth co-founder in 2014.
Dr Grant’s background as an internationally-renowned wireless
communications researcher and Chief Technology Officer In 2017, they announced a partnership with US 3D printer
Dr David Haley’s background as Director of the manufacturer Polar 3D that brought Makers Empire $1m in funding.
Global Sensor Network. Today, Makers Empire helps more than 10,000 educators teach
design thinking, science, technology, engineering and maths using
By bringing these technologies together, Myriota can offer 3D design and printing to over 400,000 students around the world.
a low-maintenance, low-cost sensor network that can be
deployed in the most remote of areas with nearly infinite uses.
Myriota was spun out of the University of South Australia
(UniSA) in 2015. Despite having excellent global rankings in
research, Australia has historically performed poorly when
attempting to commercialise that technology. When asked
how to commercialise research in Australia, Dr Alex Grant
laughs and warns that he is about to give the same answer he Launched in October 2014, Sine is focused on visitor and
always does - “On purpose.” contractor management systems. Founded by Antony
Ceravolo, the company aims to expand the use of mobile
It might as well be a motto for Grant. Before founding Myriota,
check-in technology to venues beyond air travel, where it was
he and the team at UniSA purposefully sought out real world
first widely implemented.
problems with an eye towards creating a commercially viable
product. By collaborating with industry during his academic In 2015, the company raised a seed round of $1.1m from private
research, they treated their research funding like seed capital investors. In 2017, Sine software was being used across 600
for the development and testing of a product, with the full cities worldwide, including large corporate clients like Coca-Cola,
cooperation of the university. General Electric and Vodafone. By 2018, the app had been rolled
out to thousands of global companies and was used in schools,
Now, after raising a Series A funding round of US$15m
sports stadiums, offices, industrial, medical, retail and commercial
from investors including Main Sequence Ventures, the South
facilities.
Australian Venture Capital Fund, Singtel Innov8, Right Click
Capital and Boeing’s Horizon X Ventures, Myriota continues Headquartered in Adelaide, Sine has expanded operations
to expand rapidly. As one of the first tenants at the internationally, with offices in London, New York, the Philippines
Lot Fourteen development, including a new US$2m IoT and Dublin.
Innovation Lab to build on its core technology, Myriota is
quickly becoming one of Australia’s most exciting startups -
and they’re doing it on purpose.
STARTUP PROFILE
Tobi Peace founded SWEAT as a technology platform for online
content in the health and wellness industry. His fiancée, Kayla
Itsines, is the co-creator of the BBG workout programs and e-book
and now works as a SWEAT trainer. Founded in Adelaide in 2015 by engineers Flavia Tata Nardini
and Matthew Tetlow and entrepreneur Matt Pearson, Fleet
Pearce has likened the app to Netflix, developing a platform to Space Technologies is a space technologies startup focused on
share and creates content that is focused on health and fitness. In developing low-cost satellite-based systems for the Internet of
2016, SWEAT was the most downloaded fitness app on both iOS Things (IoT). It has released the Fleet Portal, an on-the-ground
and Google Play. hub for IoT sensor networks that currently communicates
with existing satellite networks, and plans to launch its own
nanosatellite network this year. Fleet’s accompanying proprietary
software analyses and compresses recorded data, meaning they
never have to waste bandwidth transmitting raw data to orbit.
Simon Evans and Mark Ludlow in the Financial Review wrote
that Fleet was an ‘Australian moonshot’. Excusing the pun -
they aren’t far off. The company is helping to set the trend of
using low-cost spaceflight to provide infrastructure for terrestrial
technology. Fleet aims to use the falling cost of space flight
to provide connectivity for IoT devices, 75 billion of which
Adelaide startup Teamgage was founded by Ben and Noelle Smit in are expected to be online by 2025. Currently, their software
2013. It provides organisations with software that solves people, solutions for these devices provide customers in the agriculture,
culture and process issues. Teamgage helps drive continuous logistics, maritime, and mining industries with cost savings by
improvement from the bottom-up in workplaces and provide senior filtering and compressing raw data from various sensors used
leadership with visibility across the organisation. in these fields, making its broadcast to and from space more
efficient.
The founders had previously worked on UniOne, a successful
SaaS product used by universities to manage student activities. Dr Tata Nardini, born in Italy, had previously worked at the
Launched commercially in 2016, the company has enjoyed European Space Agency and the Dutch research institute TNO.
placements at the University of South Australia’s Innovation and The international experience and exposure has been influential in
Collaboration Centre, Techstars Adelaide and now Microsoft’s establishing a global-from-day-one mission for Fleet. Whenever
ScaleUp program in Sydney. its founders describe vision and mission for Fleet, they are always
stated in global terms - ‘connecting the world’ or ‘democratising
space’.
In 2017, Fleet’s Series A saw $5m in funding raised
by a group of investors led by Blackbird Ventures and joined by
Silicon Valley’s Horizon Partners and Mike Cannon-Brookes,
among others. Blackbird co-founder Niki Scevak joined
Fleet’s board following the round. The company has since
expanded overseas, opening offices in Los Angeles and Delft,
the Netherlands, chasing business opportunities in Europe and
the city’s already rich space entrepreneurship sector.
Adelaide inventors Will Tamblyn and Gavin Smith created the
Voxiebox – a 3D volumetric display. The technology has been In July of this year, the company received matched funding from
described as magical and compared to the projector used by the the South Australian government to open its mission control
robot R2D2 in Star Wars. center at Red Banks Reservoir in Pinkerton Plains. The ground
station operates 24 hours a day, allowing Fleet to track and
Voxon brought in 3D software legend Ken Silverman receive data from nanosatellites at a fraction of the cost of larger
(from the Duke Nukem game series) to be a co-founder and operators.
establish a US presence.
Fleet are now looking to launch their own nanosatellites. Each
Now based at the Tonsley Innovation District in Adelaide, Voxon weighing only 10kg, the first is under contract to launch with
received $50,000 in grants from the University of South Australia Spaceflight aboard an Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV)
and the South Australian government, have raised over $1m in by Antrix/ISRO. The second will be also launched via Spaceflight
funding and are now geating up for Series A investment. In August on an existing contract with SpaceX.
2018, Voxon won the consumer markets category at the national
iAwards. Its product has been sold in 15 countries, attracting Update: Fleet’s pace hasn’t slowed - since this profile was
notice from leading organisations in technology, gaming, medicine, written, it has announced a deal with New Zealand’s Rocket
and education. Lab to add two new satellites, the Proxima I and II, to a launch
in November 2018.INNOVATION DEVELOPMENTS
INNOVATION, INCUBATOR, STARTUP & GROWTH HUB ADELAIDE BIOMED CITY
The Hub at Lot Fourteen will feature up to 650 workspaces BioMed City precinct is the largest health and biomedical cluster
across several heritage buildings to provide the opportunity in the southern hemisphere. The site comprises the new Royal
for entrepreneurs and startups to co-locate with international Adelaide Hospital, the South Australian Health and Medical
organisations, service providers, investors and researchers Research Institute (SAHMRI), the University of Adelaide’s new
within an environment that sparks collaboration and Adelaide Health and Medical Sciences Building and the University
attracts talent. of South Australia’s Centre for Cancer Biology. This precinct brings
together research, education, clinical care and business to drive
OFFICE OF THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN new ideas and innovation.
CHIEF ENTREPRENEUR
ENTREPRENEURIAL SCHOOLS
Co-founder and chairman of Nova Group Jim Whalley was
appointed as South Australia’s first Chief Entrepreneur in South Australia is establishing four specialist entrepreneurial
2018. He will work alongside members of the newly appointed schools that will teach students entrepreneurial skills and
Entrepreneurship Advisory Board comprising current and returning attitudes, with a strong emphasis on creativity, problem solving
South Australian entrepreneurs. and collaboration.
RESEARCH, COMMERCIALISATION AND FAST AND AFFORDABLE GIGABIT INTERNET
STARTUP FUND (SA GOVERNMENT)
GigCity Adelaide is providing fast and affordable high-speed
The $27.9m Research, Commercialisation and Startup Fund will internet to startups and businesses at innovation precincts. An
support South Australian businesses to collaborate with researchers initiative of the South Australian Government, the network has
and universities to solve industrial problems, commercialise new connected 12 precincts, with a further 14 sites to be connected
products and services, attract research infrastructure investment in 2019.
into the state, and encourage the establishment and growth of
startups. Complementing the GigCity Adelaide network is Ten Gigabit
Adelaide – a high-speed, high-performance fibre optic data
network that is being rolled out by TPG in partnership with the
TONSLEY INNOVATION DISTRICT City of Adelaide across 1,000 selected buildings in the CBD and
parts of North Adelaide.
As Australia’s first innovation district, Tonsley retains the heritage
of car production by establishing itself as the home of advanced
manufacturing in South Australia. The site is home to 1,400 SOUTH AUSTRALIAN SPACE INDUSTRY CENTRE (SASIC)
employees, 150 co-working members and 32 businesses, including
Siemens Australia, Micro-X and ZEISS. SASIC was created in 2017 to drive space industry
innovation, research and entrepreneurial development
in South Australia, which is already home to around 70
SOUTHSTART
space-related organisations.
SouthStart will return for its fourth iteration in 2018 as South
Australia’s premiere future-forward innovation event. Over ENTREPRENEUR VISA
two days, 600 creative and curious technologists, founders,
investors and business leaders will exchange ideas and connect South Australia will be the first Australian state to trial the new
on the frontier of technology, culture and innovation in Entrepreneur Visa, which aims to attract promising seed-stage
South Australia. entrepreneurs to develop their concepts. Visa applicants will not
need capital backing but will ideally partner with a local business
incubator for nomination. Entrepreneurs who are successful in
TECHNOLOGY PARK (MAWSON LAKES)
establishing their business venture in Australia will be eligible to
Technology Park is home to more than 100 organisations including apply for permanent residence. A national rollout will commence
global companies Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems and SAAB along in 2019.
with startup and scale-up companies.
SOUTH AUSTRALIA VENTURE CAPITAL FUND
TECHSTARS
A $50m co-investment fund established by the South Australian
A leading US accelerator, Techstars chose Adelaide as the site of Government and managed by Blue Sky Venture Capital. The fund
its first expansion into the Asia Pacific region. provides matched funding to early stage innovation companies.STARTUPAUS ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY
Adelaide’s Lot Fourteen project is an innovation district on an There’s real talent here alongside deep technology that can impact
ambitious, global scale. Renewal SA cites Station F in Paris as an large markets. Lot Fourteen provides a big opportunity: a huge
inspiration for Lot Fourteen, and there’s detail in the reasoning integrated district with the key players from startup to scale-
behind almost every decision. The aspiration to show willingness up and established businesses, startup support organisations,
is palpable. Everything has ‘popped up’ in the now empty spaces a tech-focused university presence and talent pipeline. With
before they are finished - bars, parties, events and stores. Google Lot Fourteen’s focus on clustering expertise in defence, space,
hosted its Digital Garage event in the space after Renewal SA cyber security, machine learning, virtual reality, robotics and
offered to (and did) remove a large two-storey escalator ahead of creative industries - that’s a recipe for global interest. The recent
schedule to maximise space for the event. announcement of Lockheed Martin being the first Foundation
Partner of the University of Adelaide’s Institute of Machine
In an arena where density is vital to success, it can be tempting to Learning at Lot Fourteen proves that the world is paying attention.
doubt whether there’s enough good will and energy to succeed
despite South Australia’s relatively small population. But the International attention has the potential to add value across the
evidence suggests building a thriving startup sector can be done board. Talent coming into fintech in Sydney and London has been
from a very small population base. Boulder, Colorado, is a globally much more ‘tech’ than ‘fin’. A thriving startup vertical naturally spills
renowned startup district, and yet its population of just over over into the rest of the ecosystem. Even now, Lot Fourteen is host
100,000 is less than 10% of that of Adelaide. to a $2.7m IoT Innovation Lab because organisations like Fleet and
Myriota, while ostensibly operating in the space sector, have IoT
Of course, Brad Feld (the founder of Techstars) is one of Boulder’s at the core of their products. Lot Fourteen will serve as a centrally
big advantages, and he’s hard to replicate. He has been a leader and located hotspot and model to grow the local ecosystem, connecting
consistent driver of an organic and unified approach to developing other innovation precincts such as the Tonsley Innovation District
the ecosystem. Adelaide offers excellent lifestyle and affordability, in Adelaide south, Technology Park in the north, as well as BioMed
but while these elements are important they are neither necessary City in the CBD.
nor sufficient to attract a thriving innovation scene. Instead South
Australia needs to build on these strengths while showing that it Other challenges will persist of course. It will be difficult to maintain
is able to nurture businesses that are scaling rapidly, that it can momentum. Lot Fourteen is expected to have 500 people move
compete globally for talent and customers, and to convince globally in by the end of the year, aiming for 5,000 in 5 years, yet it’s still
relevant businesses they need to have a presence in South Australia a 7-year project with an election halfway through. Defence and
in order to tap into what’s happening on the ground. The launch space are a natural focus for South Australia and likely the right
of the South Australia Entrepreneur visa trial will be the first step focus areas to show a globally competitive edge, but the State
towards attracting foreign entrepreneurs. will need to convert some of that attention and activity into the
rest of its startup ecosystem to achieve a widespread impact on
In the space and defence industries, the signs are very promising. its economy. And attracting global talent and corporate decision-
Myriota has a raft of strategic global partners who have provided makers will naturally be harder in a smaller city.
direct investment - from Boeing to Singtel Innov8 - supported
by co-investment from the South Australian Venture Capital Yet it’s hard to escape the feeling that these challenges are the right
Fund. Wright Incorporate used its real-time drone registration ones to have for a State with genuine ambition. Innovation could
technology to win a local hackathon at UniSA’s Innovation and reasonably be described as the ability to turn idea into opportunity.
Collaboration Centre, then went on to win the grand prize in the South Australia has now turned 23,500m2 of idea into opportunity.
global ActInSpace competition in Toulouse, putting the team firmly It’s time for the entrepreneurs and technology leaders of the State
in the eye of the European Space Agency, a partner of the event. to grab that opportunity with both hands.You can also read
